UEFA reportedly plan to relax their multi-club ownership rules after Premier League side Crystal Palace were controversially kicked out of the Europa League.
Palace qualified for Europe’s second-tier competition by defeating Manchester City to win the FA Cup in May, but did not enter this season’s league phase.
The Eagles were adjudged to have fallen foul of UEFA’s rules on multi-club ownership and lost an appeal against Europa League relegation. French side Lyon also qualified for the competition and are owned by John Textor, who had shares at Palace.
Multi-club ownership rules set by UEFA prevent multiple teams owned by an individual to play in the same European competition.
Team photo of Crystal Palace before their Conference League match against Dynamo Kyiv. (Photo by Sebastian Frej/Getty Images)
Despite willing to prove a restructuring of their multi-club ownership, Palace missed the March 1 deadline and ended up in the Conference League.
However, latest report from The Guardian claim UEFA have plans to give clubs more time to resolve such issues.
The March 1 deadline is set to be relaxed, although potential multi-club ownership concerns will still need to be raised by this date. Instead, these problems can be resolved during an extra period of time at the end of the season.
Europa League and Conference League qualifying draws take place in June, so a final deadline could come at the beginning of the month.
Clubs who fail to raise any multi-club ownership issues by March 1 will still breach the rules.
Palace have moved past the drama to focus on their Conference League campaign, Oliver Glasner’s side beat Fredrikstad in their play-off round tie and won their league phase opener against Dynamo Kyiv 2-0.
